Impregnating Water with Fixed Air: Joseph Priestley’s discovery of artificially carbonating water

Joseph Priestley (1733-1804)

Joseph Priestley is perhaps best known for his discovery of Oxygen at Bowood House in 1774, while living in Calne between 1773 and 1780.

Along with Oxygen, which he termed ‘dephlogisticated air’, he discovered nine other gases including; nitrogen dioxide, ammonia, and carbon monoxide. 

However, this ingenious scientist, made many advances during his career, one of the first including gases was ‘Impregnating Water with Fixed Air’.

The Priestley Experiment

The method developed by Priestley allowed the creation of artificially carbonating water. He first developed this process in 1767, during his time living next to a brewery in Leeds.

Priestley had gained permission to collect ‘air’ bubbling up from vats of fermenting beer, which he then began to investigate. He found that this ‘air’ was ‘fixed’ air, named by discoverer Joseph Black in 1756. We now know ‘fixed’ air by the name carbon dioxide.

Being heavier than ordinary air, the carbon dioxide readily dissolved in water. Priestley named the result, ‘artificial Pyrmont water’, after the natural equivalent known from many spa towns.  Priestley went on to show that pouring sulphuric acid onto chalk and water would also generate carbon dioxide.

This process was pushed to the back of Priestley’s mind after 1767, as he went on to study other ‘airs’. However, in March 1772, Priestley was invited to dine with the Duke of Northumberland, as on of the guests. As an experiment, all of the guests were asked to drink some water distilled from seawater. They all agreed that the water was perfectly drinkable, but tasteless and flat.

This led Priestley to announce that he could restore the taste and freshness of the water. The guests being sufficiently intrigued, the required apparatus was assembled at friend Joseph Johnson’s house the following day. Those present were sufficiently impressed that Priestley’s ‘artificial Pyrmont water’ noy only circulated through London’s high society, but he was invited to the Royal College of Physicians to provide a demonstration.

Priestley was pleased with the positive feedback from the Physicians that in June 1772, he published a pamphlet entitled, ‘Directions for Impregnating Water with Fixed Air’.  Within a few weeks, the pamphlet was published in French and for sale in Paris.

 

Enter Schweppe

The iconic 'Schweppes fountain'
trade mark dates back to
The Great Exhibition of 1851, 
which was filled with
Schweppes Malvern Soda Water.

This paper went on to catch the eye of a German watch maker in Switzerland, Johann Jacob Schweppe.

Schweppe experimented for 10 years to create an industrial process of carbonation. During this time he had managed to simplify the process using two common compounds: sodium bicarbonate and tartaric acid.

Schweppe initially provided his ‘medicated’ water without charge to those that asked for it. However, demand increased, as did the number offering to pay for the product. In 1783, he founded Schweppes and in turn, the industry of soft drinks.

In the beginning, the addition of carbon dioxide was thought to have medicinal properties, endorsed by doctors and sold my pharmacists for a variety of ailments. By 1836, Schweppes was the official of soda water to the UK Royal family. In 1851, Schweppes sold over a million bottles at the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace.

Even up until 1794, Schweppe would use strong stone bottles for their product, however these bottles needed to be laid on their side, keeping the cork wet, to prevent the build-up of gasses. Most carbonated drinks manufacturers began to use glass bottles, including those that implemented marbles into their design.

 

Codd-neck Bottle

Codd-neck bottle.
Photograph courtesy of
John Newbury

In 1872, the Codd-neck bottle was invented by British soft drink maker, Hiram Codd, of Camberwell in London. The bottle, was manufactured with thick glass allowing it to withstand internal pressure. The neck of the bottle is pinched into a special chamber into which a marble was placed. As the bottle was filled, upside down, the pressure forced the marble into contact with a rubber seal in the neck of the bottle. This sealed in the carbonation. The marble was pushed down to open the bottle and the marble would rest in the chamber, where it wouldn’t block the flow of water when poured.

The Codd-neck bottle was very popular for decades after their introduction, and there have been many variants created over time. The usage of the bottle declined, nowadays used mainly in the Japanese drink, Ramune, and Indian drink, Banta. While the antique bottles are collectors items, they can be quite scarce, as children would smash the used bottles to get access to the marbles.

 

Marble, still in situ after all these years.
Photograph courtesy of John Newbury

We owe much to Joseph Priestley, who discovered and then put aside his method, before returning to it as a kind of party piece. Being a polymath, he moved quickly from experiment to experiment, making various important discoveries during his colourful career. This allowed Johann Schweppe the time required to create a simplified method that was ideal for scaled up manufacturing. Later, the Codd-neck bottle was also invented in England, replacing earthenware bottles that had been previously used. Of course, in time the Codd-neck bottle gave way to other bottle types, which are nowadays mostly plastic.

We now know that there are no medical benefits to carbonated water, but that has not stopped carbonated drinks from becoming the massive industry that it has become over the last 230-odd years. 

In 2019 alone, carbonates had a value of approximately £8.2 billion in the United Kingdom. It seems unlikely that this upward trend will end any time soon.

Written to celebrate #BritishScienceWeek 5-14 March 2021 in conjunction with River Warriors Calne and their children's poster competition.